Energy Secretary Grant Shapps convened a meeting with energy bosses in Downing Street on Wednesday to discuss their investments in power generation projects in the UK.
The minister intended to use the meeting to reassure companies that new powers in the Public Order Act will enable police to keep climate protesters out of energy infrastructure, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said.
The meeting comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he wants to “max out” the remaining oil and gas reserves in the North Sea.
Companies invited to the meeting included oil and gas giants such as Shell and BP, nuclear power generator EDF, and Scottish firm SSE, which focuses on wind and hydro power.
The government said the energy firms have investment plans of more than £100 billion in low- and zero-carbon projects, each of which support “thousands of jobs across the country.”
Investment Plans
According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Shell aims to invest £20 billion to £25 billion in the UK energy system over the next 10 years, with more than 75 percent intended for low- and zero-carbon products and services.BP intends to invest up to £18 billion in the UK to the end of 2030, and SSE has announced plans to invest £18 billion up to 2027 in low-carbon infrastructure, creating 1,000 jobs every year to 2025.
Additionally, National Grid will be investing more than £16 billion in the five-year period to 2026, and EDF has outlined plans to invest £13 billion to 2025.
Mr. Shapps said in a statement before the meeting: “We need to send the message loud and clear to the likes of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that we will never again be held to ransom with energy supply. The companies I am meeting in Downing Street today will be at the heart of that.
‘Disruptive Protests’
But the minister also said it’s “a sad reality” that critical national infrastructure needs protection from “disruptive protests.”To force the government to ban new oil and gas or adopt other decarbonisation measures, climate protesters affiliated with Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, and Insulate Britain have been using disruptive tactics including obstructing traffic, climbing on oil tankers, and blocking refineries.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero stressed the Public Order Act, which became law in May, includes powers designed to protect critical infrastructure. The department also said it would work with the police “to ensure protesters cannot gain unauthorised access to sites.”
Some 1,300 officers and 300 support staff from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary are also working to “protect nuclear sites across England, Scotland, and Wales,” the department said.
Earlier this week, Mr. Sunak announced that hundreds of new oil and gas licences will be granted in the UK and confirmed that northeast Scotland and the Humber have been chosen as locations for two new carbon capture usage and storage clusters.
Domestic Energy
Mr. Shapps told Times Radio it “makes no rational sense” not to explore domestic supply.“Unless we’re going to tell people to stop heating their homes almost immediately, or to stop driving petrol cars where they haven’t made this transition over to electric yet ... we’re going to have to import oil and gas to make up the difference,” he said.
“And when you import oil and gas, particularly as liquefied natural gas, which is predominantly how that would happen, you import four times the amount of carbon as you do from providing the licenses to dig it ourselves, he added.
